Monday 26 June 1709 was the date of one of the bloodiest and most significant military encounters in European history. The Battle of Poltava marks the end of Sweden's age of greatness, and the beginning of the rise and westward expansion of the vast empire of Russia, affecting the subsequent history of untold millions in Eastern Europe. Across a bleak plain, near an unimportant town in the Russian heartland of the Ukraine, the army of King Charles XII of Sweden, outnumbered four to one, faced that of Czar Peter the Great of Russia. The Swedish command were not unaccustomed to odds of this order: on countless occasions during the previous nine years, in battles raging across Denmark, Germany, Poland and the Baltic States and in Russia itself, they had faced similar or worse odds and invariably emerged victorious. Nor did the exhausted state of their troops, or their inferior firepower and faulty gunpowder, now prevent them from placing their trust in raw courage and cold steel, iron discipline, the inspiring presence of their king, and the benevolent hand of God. On this day however, God ceased to smile on Swedish arms. In a blow-by-blow analytical account of precisely what went wrong, this book brings the horror of 18th-century warfare to life: we smell the battlefield carnage, join the doomed men on their heroic final charge, and feel the agonies of the injured and the dying. A multitude of eye-witness accounts from letters, diaries and memoirs lets us hear the voices of those who were there. The central drama is underpinned by a profound understanding of the economic, political, social and military factors at play. At the end of the battle Czar Peter wrote that "the last stone in the foundations of St Petersburg has now been laid". Meanwhile, a Swedish host of 49,500, which had marched out for Moscow the preceding year, had virtually reduced to a shattered remnant of 1300, who had escaped death or capture by crossing the River Dnieper with their king. And although the indomnitable Charles continued to wage the Great Northern War against his increasingly triumphant enemy for another decade, the scars left in the Swedish psyche were such, that in terms of world history, in the author's words, Sweden "left the stage and took a seat among the spectators".

The Battle of Poltava: The Birth of the Russian Empire

Peter Englund

History

Gollancz

The Great War: four devastating years told by twenty eyewitnesses. There are many books on the First World War, but award-winning and bestselling historian Peter Englund takes a daring and stunning new approach. Describing the experiences of twenty ordinary people from around the world, all now unknown, he explores the everyday aspects of war: not only the tragedy and horror, but also the absurdity, monotony and even beauty. Two of these twenty will perish, two will become prisoners of war, two will become celebrated heroes and two others end up as physical wrecks. One of them go mad, another will never hear a shot fired. Following soldiers and sailors, nurses and government workers from Britain, Russia and Germany, and from Australia and South America - and in theatres of war often neglected by major histories on the period - Englund reconstructs their feelings, impressions, experiences and moods. This is a piece of anti-history: it brings this epoch-making event back to its smallest component, the individual.

The Beauty And The Sorrow: An Intimate History of the First World War

Profile Books

Four devastating years told by twenty eyewitnesses showing not just what the First World War was, but what it was like to live through\nThere are many books on the First World War, but award-winning and bestselling historian Peter Englund takes a daring and stunning new approach. Describing the experiences of twenty ordinary people from around the world, all now unknown, he explores the everyday aspects of war: not only the tragedy and horror, but also the absurdity, monotony and even beauty. Two of these twenty will perish, two will become prisoners of war, two will become celebrated heroes and two others end up as physical wrecks. One of them goes mad, another will never hear a shot fired.\nFollowing soldiers and sailors, nurses and government workers, from Britain, Russia, Germany, Australia and South America - and in theatres of war often neglected by major histories on the period - Englund reconstructs their feelings, impressions, experiences and moods. This is a piece of anti-history: it brings this epoch-making event back to its smallest component, the individual.

The Beauty And The Sorrow: An intimate history of the First World War

Military

November 1942: An Intimate History of the Turning Point of the Second World War

The Bodley Head, Ltd.

November 1942

Bodley Head

Nesta historia tao ambiciosa quanto original da Primeira Guerra, Peter Englund aborda o conflito a partir de seu aspecto menos explorado, mas talvez mais revelador: a experiencia das pessoas comuns nao apenas a tragedia e a dor, mas tambem o absurdo e mesmo, por vezes, a beleza dessas vidas.A beleza e a dor nao e, assim, um livro sobre o que foi a Primeira Guerra ou seja, suas causas, seu desenrolar, seu final ou suas consequencias , mas antes sobre como foi esse conflito. O leitor nele nao encontrara tantos eventos e processos, mas sim pessoas, impressoes, experiencias ou estados de animo. Uma reconstituicao do mundo emocional em primeiro lugar, depois o curso dos acontecimentos.\nA narrativa e composta a partir da voz de dezenove individuos, todos resgatados do anonimato por meio dos diarios e das cartas que Peter Englund usou como fonte primaria de sua pesquisa. Entre eles ha um jovem da infantaria britanica que pensava em emigrar ate que a guerra lhe ofereceu uma promessa de mudanca; um bem intencionado funcionario publico frances de meia-idade que tem sua admiracao pela cultura europeia para sempre abalada; um escritor socialista que perdeu a fe na transformacao do mundo com a eclosao do conflito; uma garota de doze anos que aguarda ansiosa as vitorias militares, pois elas significam a mudanca de rotina na escola.\nAlguns viviam no front Oeste, outros nos Balcas, outros ainda na Africa Oriental ou na Mesopotamia. Dois morrerao, um jamais ouvira o disparo de um tiro; alguns se tornarao prisioneiros de guerra; outros serao condecorados como herois. Mas apesar de suas diversas ocupacoes e destinos, genero ou nacionalidade, todos estarao unidos por seu envolvimento voluntario ou nao no grande e terrivel conflito que mudou os rumos do seculo XX.

A Beleza e A Dor (Em Portugues do Brasil)

Companhia das Letras

Stridens Skonhet och Sorg

Bokförlaget Atlantis

Ofredsår: Om den svenska stormaktstiden och en man i dess mitt (Swedish Edition)

Europe

Atlantis

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Books by Peter Englund